Making water safe to drink?
I live on the Sacramento delta. I'd like to be able to make the river water safe to drink. I know boiling blah blah blah. Maybe try to filter through some wilderness filter made of charcoal/sand. My concern is the water is full of silt/ foul smelling mud, and a ton of mercury. Some fish we can't even eat because of the mercury. Will boiling/filtering make it safe to drink? Or is there some other way to render it potable?
Removing contaminants from water by distillation
I wonder what direction you are coming from. Camping, emergency scenario, earthquake, end of the world, Zombie apuckeredlips? Without knowing what thought the question comes from, Its hard to offer options that fit in to your concerns.
Removing contaminants from water by distillation????? ya..... possible.... effective????
Keep in mind that distillation units designed for the home are intended to be used to remove trace elements from municipal water sources that are reasonably OK.
Below is a table I made showing the boiling point of common liquids. As you can see water has some nasty solvents boiling near to the boiling point of water. Heptane is very close. I wouldn't worry about those unless you were near to industrial activity and the odor of solvent was present in the water. Petrol or gasoline seem to be your closest possible contaminant of worry when it comes to industrial chemical contamination and its removal by a temperature controlled distillation process. The key there is temperature control. No thermometer, no control. In a scenario were you were suspect of the possible industrial contamination as indicated by the presence of odor, film on the water surface, it would be in your best interest to locate a different water source.
I'm with Rick and Crash and the water storage methods mentioned.
This is just my thoughts based on my work background in quality control for an adhesive manufacturer. I have never done this outside of a laboratory or to distill water to make it safe for consumption.
liquid BP C° BP F°
bromine 58.8 142
hexane 68.7 155.7
benzene 80.4 176
petrol 95 95 203
Alchohol (s) 97.5 207
heptane 98.4 209.2
Water 100 212
toluene 110.6 231
acid (s) nitric 120 248
octane-n 125.6 258
xylene 142.7 287
kerosine 150 300
jet fuel 163 325
petroleum 210 410
mercury 356.9 675.1